“Architecture centrally involves constructing environments for

people”1. How have architects moved away from this ideology, and
how, through permaculture, are they trying to move towards it?

Many are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental problems facing our planet, and
hence our everyday healthy living. In recent times, and as technological advancement takes
place, increasing concern has been expressed over the unsustainable nature of humanity’s
development agenda, especially with reference to the consequences on the natural
environment. It is true, that architecture and construction constitute a major group of human
activities with a large contribution to the environmental depression, as a result of their
depletive usage of renewable resources since the industrial revolution. It is a truism that
buildings conceived as mass-produced machines impoverish the concept of cultural diversity
and leave their inhabitants cut-off from the wonders and delights of nature2. The better
assumption for this, is people’s urge for technological development and economical prosperity,
and due to this, architects continue to ignore earth’s positive assets, and turning them into
liabilities. This way of thinking, only offered a disastrous effect on the earth’s ecosystems.

To begin with, the advent of industrial revolution encouraged the spirit of mass production
amongst industrial designers such as Hans Gugelot and of industrial and machine aesthetics of
the modernist architects such as Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. It marked a departure
from traditional ecological knowledge, which encompass the sophisticated arrays of
information, understandings and interpretations that guide human societies around the globe
in their innumerable interactions with the natural milieu: in agriculture and animal husbandry;
hunting, fishing and gathering; struggles against disease and injury; naming and explanation of
natural phenomena; and strategies to cope with fluctuating environments3. It was the

1
Fisher T, “Ignoring Environmental Behavior Research”, Harvard Design Magazine, Fall 2004/Winter 2005,
Number 21
2
McDonough, W. and Braungart, M. “Building Like Tree, Cities Like Forests”, in TechTV‟s catalog
of Tomorrow, USA, 2002
3
Nakashima, D., Prott, L. and Bridgewater, P. “Tapping into the world’s wisdom”, UNESCO Sources, 2000 p. 12.
beginning of the loss of valuable traditional wisdom, ethics and science and its replacement
with abstract knowledge and academic ways of learning.

Nowadays, environmentalists and scientists are alarmed by the way our environment is rapidly
changing to worse, and argue that a main factor for the global warning, pollution to loss of
biodiversity and to the extensive amount of natural resources used every day is the negative
impact of our designs. They also argue that designs should be more sustainable, and architects
should use methods and ideologies such as appropriate (alternative) technology, energy
conscious design, permaculture and eco-architecture.

By definition, sustainability evokes minimalist tendencies, specifying just the basic precondition
for the environment to remain good enough for future generations. For some, it is the
appreciation of the legacy of our designs with regards to the long term health of nature and
human culture. In general, sustainability calls for minimizing human impact on the
environment. Environmentalists term it striving to be “less bad”. But, the environmental
question is more serious than the “less bad” option. The idea should be to make buildings,
which create ecological, social and economic value and not simply those with limited impact.

To achieve eco-efficiency in architecture for sustainable development and healthy living, we

must seize from the principle of fine-tuning a damaging system. Instead, we should imitate
nature’s cradle-to-cradle life cycle, by ensuring that every design product (building) is a
potential biological nutrient for something new after its useful life. This innovative concept is
more comprehensive than the dematerialization strategy as it goes beyond using nature
efficiently. It is the concept of re-materialization. The ideal product - the building, must be
considered as responsive to a locale, including wildlife, grazing land, natural water resources,
climate, landscape, etc.

The first idea that was raised after these concerns was the term of eco- architecture. This
method, was a ‘less bad’ option for both environmentalists and architects, and architects
introduced to their designs solar panels, wind turbines, solar water heating, heat pumps, and
more sustainable materials etc. However, are we really trying to achieve a ‘less bad’ option, or
an option causing ‘zero’ harm? If our priority is to design in a fully ecological way, then we
actually aim to use the most sustainable methods, thinking of all the aspects that would affect
the needs of the environment, and the needs of the inhabitants.

A type of agro-ecosystem design called permaculture has begun to spring-up in the design of
open spaces, urban and rural alike. It has ethics, ecologically derived design principles, and
systems-thinking approaches to spatial arrangement that draw on ecological food-webs and
nutrient cycling concepts.4 Permaculture can bring benefits to conservation and urban ecology
through conscious provision of habitat for native flora and fauna, and high plant diversity. This
way of designing, shows how an ethical approach to land and a simplified or idealized ecological
understanding can fuel the enabling of space in a way that makes it socially, environmentally
and productively relevant.

The positivistic and optimistic nature of the permaculture method inspires bottom-up activity
since it makes environmental change tangible and an ecological viewpoint comprehensible. It
approaches ecology through benefits at individual level e.g., food and materials, with collective
benefits to common goods as a by-product – e.g., biodiversity, healthy environment, and
‘clear’ conscience. Additionally, when its principles are applied to food production and to
trade, ‘the two activities become symbiotic’5. This can be seen in the activities of the
Transition Towns movement, founded as a way to use the ecologically inspired design principles
of permaculture to make whole communities sustainable. It reflects growing ecologically
stimulated understanding of environmental crises among communities and a public wish to
take practical action instead of waiting passively for governmental acts or corporate
technological solutions.

How to achieve permaculture?

In order to achieve permaculture, Bill Morisson in “Permaculture- A Designer’s Manual”
suggests three steps. Firstly, the systems constructed should last as long as possible, and take

4
Morris F.A, NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences: When Science goes feral”, 2012, Volume 59, Issues 1–2,
p .7
5
Sherriff G., Permaculture and productive urban landscapes . In: Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes:
Designing Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Cities. Viljoen, André; Bohn, Katrin; and Howe, Joe (Eds). Elsevier,
Oxford, UK. 2005 p.221-8
least maintenance. Secondly, these systems, fuelled by the sun, should produce not only for
their own needs, but the needs of the people, creating or controlling them. Thus, they are
sustainable, as they sustain both themselves and those who construct them. Lastly, energy
should be used to construct these systems, providing that in their lifetime, they store or
conserve more energy that we use to construct them or to maintain them. As a result, these
design considerations provide us with clear criteria for how any permaculture design should
perform. If we can design systems within these guidelines that meet our human needs, and at
the same time support the eco-system as a whole, then we will be well on our way to a
sustainable human society.
Observational skills and patterns
The fast pace of modern life means that while we may look, we don’t always see. Our attention
span gets shorter as we reach information overload, and yet things we offer notice the least are
the very things keeping us alive, day in, day out. To turn things around, we have to learn to see
again, which is why permaculture urges us to become better observers. Good observation is an
important skill to have, as a “great design begins with detailed observation”6.

While observing natural ecosystems, one can see that certain patterns keep appearing, in many
situations and at varying scales. These patterns occur both in time and space, and while the
former determine our routines, the latter are often only considered for their beauty. Patterns in
space occur at the edge between two different media or systems, whereas patterns in time are
simpler, as our lives inevitably revolve around our responses to them. For instance, space
patters are “the waves on the ocean, the place at which the air mixes with the water”7.
Resources are exchanged across these edges; needs are met and waste products eliminated, so
by increasing surface area, nature increases the efficiency of this interaction and ultimately the
size and health of the organism. On the other hand, time patterns include the seasons and
day/night cycles, and by each time pattern, people, animals and plants adapt to these changes.

6
Aranya, Permaculture Design, A step by step guide, 2013
7
Aranya, Permaculture Design, A step by step guide, 2013
As Morrison outlined, “It is this patterning that permits our elements to flow and function in
beneficial relationship. The pattern is design, and design is the subject of permaculture”.8 As
well as defining the overall design of the site, we can use patterns to help us integrate our
elements into systems. This is where we consider which of the successful patterns that we see
occurring in nature are best suited to our particular circumstances. Where, for instance, can we
apply the principles of ecology, energy cycling being one such example? How can we create
beneficial relationships? Where can we make best use of succession or stacking to integrate
elements together? Even when there’s no space for all layers of a forest garden, we can still
make use of vertical and temporal opportunities. Can we create new microclimates and make
best use of existing ones? The same applies to patterns of behavior. How can we design our site
to suit the habits of both humans and animals?

Culture, as a shifting, changing network of representations and norms, plays a crucial role in
production and reproduction of society and is of special significance when considering diffusion
and acceptance of values and changes in behavior, which permaculture attempts to do with
regard to food production, attitudes toward the environment, people and social justice. The
role of culture is clearly evident in shifts in development paradigms which have changed over
time to reflect changing cultural values. To some degree, the shift in definitions of sustainable
development has been mirrored in permaculture discourse which has evolved from a sole focus
on animals and plants useful to humans, to a more holistic and integrated view of culture,
society and environment. Kempts and Martens, while not referring specifically to permaculture,
endorse a system’s thinking approach to sustainable development that combines the capacity
to “adapt to change with the capacity to shape change”.

In permaculture sense, attention is drawn to personal “responsibility in the context of

relationship or connection”9. This in turn, returns to the idea of holistic interconnectedness
which fundamentally orients permaculture as both a design system and as a vision for
sustainable development, and has conceptual ties to community and culture.
8
Aranya, Permaculture Design, A step by step guide, 2013 p. 127
9
Kroeger – Mappes, 1994:110
In essence, permaculture as a land use approach is a system of ecological regeneration in which
the production of products for human live hoods is also a key component- a marriage of
ecological restoration and gardening. Permaculture land systems always promote biodiversity,
not simply biomass (output), and are heavily focused on increasing ecosystem health and
reducing mechanical energy.

Having a successful permaculture design, one should decide on which are the best systems and
elements to include in a design. Perhaps, the most significant of all, should be to take care of
the Earth, meaning, rebuild natural capital- soil, forests, clean air and water, species diversity
etc. Afterwards, consider people – physical, emotional, spiritual-family, community, culture and
humanity as a whole. Fair shares of surpluses and voluntary limits to consumption and
reproduction should also be considered. Equality, leading to a peaceful planetary co-habitation,
and creating abundance within a finite environment.

To conclude, permaculture can begin from simple ideas, for simple purposes, and can develop
to something great, efficient and productive. Designing a building, a landscape, a refugee camp,
based on permaculture, can help the architectural world to design truly sustainable and self –
sufficient designs. Permaculture is not just an idea, it’s a method of working based on the idea
that life itself is research, that we experience what we do and where we are, not just as idea
but as part of nature where the body is the machine and the food the energy. This method
denies that research is only a scientific field; research is life and therewith evolution. Whether
as theory, design, object, strategy or detail, permaculture is the past, and will be the future.
Case Studies on Permaculture:

1. Permaculture House
Architects are often guinea pigs in their own
homes to test out ideas. The Stephenson
Residence is no exception. This was their first
house built by themselves for themselves that
incorporated Permaculture Principles. The results
were so successful it received an excellent rating
under the Branz Green Home Scheme and saved
them considerable money in running and heating
costs. Apart from using locally milled macrocarpa
for framing and cladding they recycled aluminum
windows and matai flooring. They were the first
residence in the Western Bay of Plenty District to have an internal composting toilet approved.
The best permaculture example applied to the building was the ability to extract more than
three uses from the Wamsler wood burner. In fact,
they managed to get six uses whenever they started
the fire.
1) Cooking and baking in the oven as well as general
space heating.
2) Heating the potable drinking water in the wetback
supplying all hot water to the house hold.
3) Providing towel warmers using the residual heat
from the return wetback pipe.
4) The installation of a radiator in the basement
again using the residual heat from the wetback pipe.

This created a drying room and also kept the

composting toilet mass warm over winter.
5) Underfloor heating to the entire ground floor area
when it got really cold.
6) Using residual heat from the chimney as it passed
through two bedroom spaces above.
As a result their power bills were extremely low,
especially for a family of five. The rest of the site was designed using permaculture principles.

2. Floating Permaculture
- Constraints for European offshore farming

Floating Permaculture as a living organism, a

nomadic urban autonomous system designed for
local, national and international awareness of water,
energy, natural systems and urban rethinking – self
sufficient and resourceful. Today young architects
trying to bring farming components back into the
urban environment, but rarely as an autonomous
system rather often it is still based on fossil fuel
elements, transportation and use of non recycled
freshwater.
Also it is fact that it is not possible to create farms on
every roof due to static, orientation and shadow
from next door buildings. Floating Permaculture
deals with the futuristic but real scenario that in
short term either through flooding or due to
overpopulation, normal farming as we know, is not
longer possible. Food production becomes a
vulnerable system linked to fossil fuel. The
transportation of produced food takes often 1.000 of
Kilometers before it reaches the consumer. This
leads to traffic congestion, air pollution and carbon
output. Also numbers show that in around 45 year
mankind is running out of fossil fuels like oil and coal;
hence it is logical to set up a trendsetting system of
food and energy harvesting, which works self
sufficient. Those systems could reduce the amount of
freshwater used in Agriculture (which is nowadays
70%) and society would benefit by social food justice
and education.

Target is to create a “Floating Permaculture” which

symbioses energy and food production as a floating
“green reactor”; an autonomous floating farm.
Proposed is that those floating reactors could “swarm” out in the North Sea linked to existing
off-shore wind farms. Further benefit in creating floating farms is to reduce the stormwater
run-off, which is destroying the estuaries and the oceans.
Green reactors

Floating permaculture is a polemical

utopian ‘system to link systems’ that
offers a closed feedback loop of energy
and food production. It adapts the
futuristic vision of the Metabolist
movement of the 1950s and ’60s to
contemporary society. In this proposal,
‘green reactors’ are projected onto the
shallow waters of the North Sea. Given
the pressure of urbanization on agricultural land in the North Sea’s coastal zones, a logical
solution would be to generate new farmland on floating islands in order to feed the urban
population (more than eighty per cent
of our urban areas with a million or more inhabitants are close to an ocean). As futuristic as all
this sounds, the use of floating permaculture is an ancient idea. A thousand years ago the
Aztecs used chinampas – floating gardens – to feed their cities where normal farmland was
barely available. But in this case the floating islands would generate not only food, but energy
as well. The history
of civilization can
be seen in terms of
a competition for
food and energy,
in which human
beings created a
distortion in the
balance of food
and energy chains
by taking more out
of the system than
it could sustain.
The development
of high-yielding
varieties of
different crops
after World War II,
part of the so-called Green Revolution, has boosted food production and helped to reduce the
hunger for food. But this was achieved at a high environmental cost, and without reducing the
hunger for energy. Quite the opposite, in fact. An increasing hunger for energy was a driving
force behind the development of offshore oil and gas platforms. Offshore platforms could also
work to satisfy our hunger for food, using the ideas of the Metabolist movement, which started
in Japan in the late 1950s. Metabolism in architecture was based on the idea that the built
environment could become an adaptable and expandable megastructure, flexibly responding to
changing needs. The Metabolist visions resonated in the work of European architects and artists
like Constant and Yona Friedman, who developed utopias housed in comparable
megastructures. Most of these utopian megastructures were concerned with social issues and
housing. Food production was hardly a topic, even though the name of the movement suggests
otherwise. Few of the projects were related to energy.
Bibliography:
1. Fisher T, “Ignoring Environmental Behavior Research”, Harvard Design
Magazine, Fall 2004/Winter 2005, Number 21
2. McDonough, W. and Braungart, M. “Building Like Tree, Cities Like Forests”,
in TechTV‟s catalog of Tomorrow, USA, 2002
3. Nakashima, D., Prott, L. and Bridgewater, P. “Tapping into the world’s
wisdom”, UNESCO Sources, 2000
4. Morris F.A, “When Science goes feral”,NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life
Sciences, 2012, Volume 59, Issues 1–2
5. Sherriff G.,” Permaculture and productive urban landscapes” in
“Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes: Designing Urban Agriculture for
Sustainable Cities”. Viljoen, André; Bohn, Katrin; and Howe, Joe (Eds).
Elsevier, Oxford, UK. 2005
6. Aranya, “Permaculture Design, A step by step guide”, 2013
7. Coughlan S., “Permaculture: A vision and Strategy for Sustainable
Development? A Malawian Case Study” 2012, Massey University,
Palmerston North, New Zealand.
8. Falk B. “The Resilient Farm and Homestead: An Innovative Permaculture
and Whole Systems Design Approach”, Chelsea Green Publishing: 2013